180th Meridian

When we went the wrong way around the world (as opposed to going about the world the wrong way) it was rather tiring. All those clocks, advanced by one hour for every 15 degrees of longitude travelled east. As we crossed the International Date Line we would gain an extra day out of the blue to catch up with ourselves. We never quite knew what to do with it.

The right way of course, was westbound. With clocks similarly retarded, that was twenty-four mornings with an extra hour in bunks. It didn't bother anyone that we lost a day in the middle of the Pacific. Unless it was your birthday.

The IDL roughly follows 180º longitude apart from a slight skirmish around some South Pacific island groups. It also zig-zags through the Bering Strait up there to keep Russia in the same day. I often like to think about the straits I've been in other than dire. Counting them up like sheep, a soporific incantation to rival the Shipping News. Whilst I never knew the Baring I was acquainted with the Bass, Beagle, Bosporus, and even Bab-el-Mendeb after a terrible bunker in Djibouti. Solent Singapore Makassar, Messina Mytilini Malacca and Magellan. I think the pretty Dardanelles qualify. I'd mention Panama Amazon and Suez but I like to keep my canals and rivers separate.